Twilight stretched the shadows of the group walking through the wilderness into long trails.
"Damn it, the whole way here and it's nothing but roadblocks."
The lanky Fractsidus member wiped his long spear, his tone thick with irritation:
"Hey, Jiyan, are you sure you're leading us the right way? We haven't seen a single person, but there's no shortage of roadblocks."
"No mistake."
Jiyan stiffly uttered the two words, then fell silent again and continued straight ahead.
The icy attitude greatly annoyed the lanky member. He opened his mouth to curse, but forcibly held it back.
What was the point of arguing with a puppet?
The lanky member glanced around at the surroundings to kill the boredom of the journey.
Suddenly his eyes fixed on something. He shouted abruptly and pointed ahead:
"Look there—someone! Finally, people!"
Everyone followed his finger and indeed saw a man in white casual clothing.
The man leaped down from a treetop, landing steadily. He reached out and grasped the air—a swift blade materialized in his palm. He smiled lightly:
"I've been waiting for you all a long time!"
"A Resonator—open fire!"
With the roar of cannon fire, countless shells poured out without restraint.
Yet when the shells reached within one meter of Noah, they all mysteriously halted, suspended in mid-air.
[Time Stop!]
Drawing Commando of Conviction and casually deflecting the shells in front of him, Noah stepped forward. The shells regained their momentum and exploded in brilliant fire behind him.
The fierce wind whipped his robes. A faint smile appeared on Noah's face.
Time stop—really useful.
Suddenly, the smile on Noah's face froze.
His gaze pierced through the Fractsidus crowd and locked instantly on Jiyan among them. Jiyan's current appearance could only be described as extremely wretched.
His left shoulder armor had been brutally torn open by blunt force; beneath the scabbed blood was a wound deep enough to see bone. His clothing was tattered and incomplete, revealing countless large and small burn scars across his body.
The very first glimpse of Jiyan gave Noah a shock: "How is he even still alive with injuries like these?"
He met Jiyan's black-purple eyes—empty, unfocused, devoid of any emotion.
"Jiyan, move—kill that Resonator."
Seeing the shells unable to harm Noah, the lanky member hurriedly shielded the others behind him and ordered Jiyan to attack.
At his command, Jiyan brandished his spear and charged toward Noah with swift steps.
The excessive movement caused the scabbed wounds on his body to split open one after another, fresh red blood seeping out.
As the spear thrust forward, Noah raised his blade to parry. The impact transmitted through his arm felt even weaker than a single punch from the Crownless in Yunling Valley.
[Limited Convene "When the Night Falls Cold" and "Floating Voice Sinking Soldier" are now open.]
The panel notification flashed in the corner of his vision, but Noah paid no attention to the small text.
He only felt a surge of anger rising from the depths of his heart.
That was Jiyan—the character who had accompanied him since the game's launch, fighting endlessly in the depths of the Abyssal Tower—reduced to this state!
Who did it? Scar?
Fighting Jiyan at full strength, he had ninety percent confidence. Against a heavily injured Jiyan? Even more so.
"Jiyan, you're in this condition and you still want to fight?"
Jiyan said nothing, only swinging his spear relentlessly. A cyan dragon shadow flickered along the weapon; every strike carried the roar of a dragon, full of imposing momentum.
Worried about accidentally injuring Jiyan, Noah dared not strike heavily. He could only retreat repeatedly, blocking with his blade only when he truly couldn't dodge.
"Pff!"
Overexertion aggravated internal injuries. Jiyan spat a large mouthful of blood, yet his movements did not slow in the slightest.
"Jiyan—I'm here to help Jinzhou. I'm an ally."
No matter how Noah called out, Jiyan's expression and actions showed no change. Every strike was vicious, the spear tip aimed straight for Noah's vital points.
"Hahaha, it's useless—Jiyan is one of us now!"
The lanky member in the distance laughed arrogantly, raising his cannon barrel and aiming at Noah:
"Today it's either you or him that dies. So—do you dare to land a killing blow on Jiyan?"
Noah swept his blade to deflect Jiyan's horizontal spear sweep, lightly stepping aside to evade an incoming shell.
Watching Jiyan—whose wounds kept reopening with every move, turning him almost into a blood-soaked figure—Noah activated [Perception].
As expected, just like with Mortefi earlier, there was an additional high-frequency Whisperin Core inside Jiyan's body—and the core in Jiyan was far more solid than Mortefi's.
In the distance, the Fractsidus Artificers pulled back. The lanky member fired several shots in a row, all deftly dodged by Noah, making him furious with embarrassment.
"Useless Jiyan—still a general, huh? Can't even take down that guy after all this time!"
Seeing Noah only defending and never attacking under Jiyan's spear, he suddenly hatched a vicious plan:
"You're good at dodging, right? Let's see you dodge this!"
The lanky member swung his cannon toward Jiyan and pulled the trigger. A tremendously powerful shell shot out.
Noah instinctively prepared to dodge, only to realize the shell's trajectory would hit Jiyan. He forcibly twisted his body.
One hand held his blade to block Jiyan's spear; the other firmly caught the incoming shell. He activated time stop and hurled the about-to-explode projectile away.
Boom! The shell detonated nearby, the piercing sound ringing in his ears.
"Hey! It works!"
Seeing this, the lanky member grew excited, as if he'd found the perfect counter to Noah.
He signaled everyone to reload quickly while shouting at Jiyan:
"Jiyan—stand still and don't move! Everyone—fire at Jiyan!"
At the command, Jiyan indeed stood motionless. Endless cannon fire rained down upon him.
"Despicable!"
Noah stood in front of Jiyan, using time stop to intercept the shells. The fury in his eyes burned almost tangibly as he glared at the distant Fractsidus members firing from safe range.
"So busy dealing with Jiyan that I forgot to clean up you small fry, huh."
Using time stop, Noah swung Commando of Conviction to deflect all incoming shells and rapidly closed in on the Fractsidus members.
The lanky member would never just sit and watch Noah approach. He decisively ordered:
"Spread out—don't fire from the same line, or that weird ability of his can freeze all the attacks."
At those words, the Fractsidus members scattered quickly, forming a fan shape and firing at Jiyan.
If Noah approached any one of them, his time-stop range would no longer cover Jiyan.
His current mastery of time stop only allowed a three-meter radius around himself.
In Jiyan's current near-death state, a single direct hit would be fatal.
Facing the Fractsidus barrage, Noah was forced to retreat. Breathing heavily, the prolonged use of time stop was taking an increasingly heavy toll on him.
The more critical the situation, the calmer his mind became. His thoughts raced, searching for a way to break the deadlock.
He possessed Rover's combat prowess—virtually no weaknesses in close combat—but against remote enemies keeping distance like this, it was hard to find an opening.
If it were Rover in this situation, he would probably have to withdraw with Jiyan to safety first. But Noah was different.
Noah had cheats!
He opened the panel and navigated to [Convene].
Now [Convene] had four banners: Jiyan's character banner, Jiyan's signature weapon banner, the standard character banner, and the standard weapon banner.
Glancing at the 20 Radiant Tide and 1800 Astrite in the top-right corner of the panel, then back at the blood-soaked, motionless Jiyan, Noah prayed inwardly:
"Dear Jiyan, dear Jiyan—I'm not counting on gold from your banner. Just guarantee me a 4-star shooter—Chixia, Aalto, Mortefi—anyone will do!"